Recently, a number of questions have been raised regarding the funding of our community plot, B6, with this in mind, the committee would like to answer the following comments and questions which have been made to us.

Member Questions

Both at the time of this years AGM and since the meeting, a number of members (to the best of our knowledge, none of whom actually attended the meeting) have made comments to Committee members and non-Committee members alike. Some have been asked as questions, others have been stated as facts (which have been incorrect). With this in mind, the Committee would like to put the record straight regarding some of these statements:-

Statement: “That B6 plot is costing us members a fortune and that’s why they’re putting the rents up!”

Reality: Our B6 Community Garden is being fully funded by grants and donations of materials and labour from generous benefactors. Local companies have also provided materials, their labour and expertise, completely free of charge. NOT ONE PENNY of Association funds has been used on our B6 community garden and never will be! 

Statement: “There’s MILLIONS of pounds of money on that community plot and everyone who works there are getting paid”

Reality: The value of grants to date (@ end June 2025 and excluding direct donations of materials) is £27,600. This is made up of £20,000 from The National Lottery Fund (wholly allocated to our meeting space and shop buildings which will be owned by the Association, not any community group using B6), £5000 from the National Garden Scheme (fully spent on Polytunnel, Shed, Sleepers, Paving Blocks, Hardware, Building Materials) and £2600 from ASDA Outdoor Community Spaces Fund (details of which are covered in the point below) NONE of the committee members, nor plot holders, nor local contractors working on B6 are being paid a penny for their time, expertise and in many cases, a substantial value of materials, provided at their own personal cost.

Statement: “Everyone who shops at ASDA can wander round the allotments, as they’ve paid some money to B6”

Reality: We were recently successful in being awarded a grant of £2600 from the ASDA Outdoor Community Spaces Fund. This has been wholly allocated for building materials, timber, hardware and seating adapted for the disabled, all to further our B6 Community Garden project. None of this means anyone who shops at ASDA has an automatic right of access although some of the community group members will probably occasionally shop at ASDA!

Statement: “The Allotment Committee just put up the rents without asking”

Reality: The requirements for an annual rent increase was outlined by our Treasurer at the 2025 AGM and the attendees voted unanimously in favour by a show of hands and Rent books. 

Statement: “We’ve(?) got a Lottery Grant of £20,000, so now all the rents are free!”

Reality: Our successful application to the National Lottery Fund resulted in an amazing award of £20,000. This was wholly allocated to the purchase of the ‘meeting space’ and site "Shop" element of our new containers. Due to one of our partners not being able to help out with part of the funding they had initially indicated, the Association has had to make a larger than expected contribution to the cost.

Statement: “Why are the committee wasting money on a new shop when we don’t need one?”

Reality: Our allotment shop is showing its age and is starting to deteriorate, being a timber structure, with rendered walls and flat felt roof. The service lifespan for a building of this type is typically 25 years and we are already exceeding that expected lifespan! By combining our order for a new shop with the one for the meeting room (funded by our National Lottery grant), our costs have been substantially reduced, due to the fabrication, delivery and installation costs being amortised.

Statement: “The new shop and meeting space buildings will reduce the number of parking spaces on site”

Reality: The site of these buildings has never been used for parking. The area was levelled, filled and compacted and as anyone can see, parking is still possible in front of the cordoned off area. In truth, when the new buildings are in place and the car park area is redesigned, it will probably result in more car parking space than at present.

Statement: “The horse manure on site is free and you can take as much as you like, without paying”

Reality: We purchase horse manure from a local farmer, who delivers it by tractor and trailer from his farm. We recover our costs by asking members to pay £1 per wheelbarrow load and unless we have a surplus, limit their order to 3 wheelbarrow loads at a time. A 50L bag of farmyard manure currently costs approximately £5. A typical wheelbarrow can hold 90L (although some of our enterprising members can cram in nearly double that, a-la Pizza Hut Salad Bowl!) Good value eh?

Statement: “Why aren’t we spending money on resurfacing C Lane drive and the car park instead?”

Reality: Our last quotation for resurfacing these areas was c. £35-40,000. For many years we have attempted to patch up the surface, fill in potholes and make the surface reasonably flat, which would be helped greatly by members observing the site speed limit and not ‘wheel spinning’ out of the site.

Statement: “What’s the point of B6?”

Reality: Our B6 Community Garden Project is being developed to create a facility where local people of all ages and abilities can enjoy gardening in a safe environment, adapted to their individual needs. Through a continuous programme of fundraising efforts, the realisation and ongoing maintenance of ‘B6’ will be cost-neutral to Beighton Allotment Association. The (often overlooked) benefit of this project is that it delivers a huge potential for economies of scale, enabling the Association to realise our own ambitions for several projects, which would have been impossible, were it not for ‘B6’ as the catalyst and enabler.

The Committee hopes that the above answers some of the questions and comments which have been put to us in recent weeks and if any members have any more questions regarding funding or any other decisions the Committee has made, we would be very happy to answer any questions you may have.

Finally we can confirm that there is approximately £2,500 left in grants awarded from external sources to be spent on B6 and that the completely separate, main Association bank account, is standing at almost exactly where is was in July 2024.